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For military Millennials, 'duty or child?' is not just an issue for women

A soldier from the 10th Mountain Division had a particularly tough question this week for Defense Secretary Ashton Carter: Could the Army help her keep her job and her child?

“I’m a single mother, and I’m faced with some custody issues,” the soldier, who is slated to be stationed in South Korea, told Mr. Carter in front of assembled troops at Fort Drum in Jefferson County, N.Y. “Basically, it’s going to be choosing between my career in the Army or my child.”

With one two-month exception, the 10th Mountain’s brigades have been deployed for 14 straight years in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as South Korea among other places.